Health, Community Well-Being, and Social Welfare

Examines the nature, extent, and causes of social problems in the United States and around the globe from multiple perspectives. Emphasizes the role of social structural forces including conflicting economic, racial, ethnic, national, and gender interests in the creation and perpetuation of social problems. Discussion of poverty, work, health care, drugs, terrorism, human rights, and social change.

An introduction to concepts, theories, methods, and major research findings in the sociology of intimate relationships. A description and analysis of research findings on the development, operation, and dissolution of intimate relationships, including how sociocultural and economic changes have shaped intimate relationships over time. Emphasis on the United States, including issues of diversity and inequalities in intimate relationships.

Class, status, and power in society. Theories and empirical research findings on vertical and horizontal stratification in society. Class differences in behavior, values, and avenues and extent of social mobility. Cross cultural comparisons.

The family as a basic social institution: similarities and variations in family systems, their interrelationships with other social institutions, and patterns of continuity and change. Taught alternate years.

Analyzes the systems of justice in the United States, from a sociological perspective. Focuses on law enforcement, courts, and corrections. Evaluates the effectiveness of social policies related to systems of justice. Explores the structural, community, and individual level factors that influence different stages of justice systems.

Focuses on the ways in which involvement in the criminal justice system affects families and family systems. Analyzes the antecedents and consequences of parental incarceration, including an investigation as to how social policies influence this phenomenon. Includes how offenders and their families are embedded in the criminal justice system and learn to navigate periods of incarceration and reentry—which includes family members’ secondary prisonization. Examines the emotional and financial costs of incarceration and reentry on families, as families serve as informal safety nets.

Contemporary American and global population trends in historical and comparative perspective. Discussion of the impact of population change on individual and society. Relevant public policy questions examined.

Emergence of old age as a social problem. Social aspects of aging in America, including the minority experience and with some cross-cultural comparisons. Social and demographic characteristics of the aged, location of aged in the social structure, and current and future social problems of old age.

Analysis of the structure, functions, and consequences of schooling in America, the social processes affecting academic achievement, and the implications of current knowledge for educational reform. Taught alternate years.

Focuses on the nature, extent, causes, and consequences of widely recognized forms of violence within schools, such as bullying, fighting, sexual assaults, harassment, dating violence, and shootings. Examines the effectiveness of violence prevention programs. Includes sociological theories of violence within schools. Explores the social debate over balancing the collective public safety obligations of schools with individual students rights/responsibilities.

Social and cultural response to illness and infirmity. Emphasis on the sick role, patient role, practitioner role, organization and politics of health care delivery, stratification, professionalism, and socialization of health practitioners.

Mental illness and social systems, historically and in contemporary society. Distribution of mental illness with special reference to stratification, role, and deviance theories. Mental health occupations and organization of treatment. Implications for social policy.